


Leverage

by Butterkup



Series: Leverage [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: F/M, Grifter Allura, M/M, Thief Lance (Voltron)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-17
Updated: 2018-12-27
Packaged: 2019-03-20 04:53:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 8,840
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13710258
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Butterkup/pseuds/Butterkup
Summary: Unemployed and teetering on the edge, Takashi Shirogane is approached about a Robin Hood-like scheme. He enlists the help of the best thieves and grifters in the business, and with their help, he steals from the rich and gives to the poor to help balance the crooks in high power positions. He and his team help provide...leverage.





	1. Chapter 1

~Chapter 1~

"Here you are Mr. Shirogane, "  The bartender said, handing the tall Asian man his drink, “I’ve also checked and the next shuttle to the airport leaves in twenty minutes.” The bartender then gave him another smile and walked back to where ever she came from before. At ten in the morning, no one was exactly drinking besides him. Shiro sat alone at the bar stool, swishing the amber colored liquid around, and gulping down a large sip, scowl marring his face.

"Excuse me, Mr. Shirogane?--”

At the sound of the new voice, Shiro turned to see another man, place a suit jacket and briefcase on the bar next to him, following the motion with his eyes until he gazed at the man. He was tall, with long platinum hair, and thin. By the looks of him, he was definitely a businessman. His tie was perfectly aligned with his button up, his jacket was dry cleaned and his briefcase was real leather by the stitching. He took a minute and got settled into the seat on the other side of him purse, thankfully didn’t try to move her things to situate himself.

"Hello Mr. Shirogane, sorry to bother you, but I'm Lotor Galran." Mr. Galran then held his hand out, smile still carrying on his lips.

“I’ve heard so much about you." Lotor states, retracting his hand after Shiro refused to take it. "I know for example that when you found that stolen Monet painting in Florence back in 2008? You saved your insurance company what, 30 million dollars?”

Taking another sip of his drink Shiro’s frown grew, as the man mentioned his old employer.

“And then there was that stolen identity case in Venice, I couldn’t believe how many millions of dollars but I just know that when you needed them… What happened to your family is the kind of thing--"

Without warning Shiro slams his now, empty glass down onto the bar top. "You know that part of the conversation where I punch you in the neck about nine or ten times? We're coming up on that pretty quick."

The taller man’s eyes met his and he watched Lotor’s smile drop and a look of panic flashed over his features, putting his hands up in a gesture of defense, his face showing his regret in his words. “Look, I’m sorry. I just want to offer you a job."

"What kind of job?" Shiro replied with a half lidded stare.

“Do you know anything about airplane designs?” he asked, looking a little more at ease.

Shiro smirks, flagging down the waiter for another drink as he passes, "I could try giving it a shot. Just give me a pencil and one of those little rulers."

"Well somebody stole my airplane designs. Very valuable designs.”

The anger the shows across the once stoic man, only causes Shiro to laugh. "I see… So then you would like me to find them?  Correct?"

"No," Lotor says, shaking his head, the neutral headed look back in place. "I know where they are. I want you to steal them back.”

Shiro looks at him in mild surprise. "Steal them back?"

Lotor nods again. "Look, one day my head engineer just suddenly up and disappears with all my files and a week later Marmoran launches an identical project? Come on, I'm not stupid."

Shiro swirls the amber liquid around again. "And you’re sure Marmoran was the one who stole your designs? I mean stealing them back seems like a stupid risk, there are probably much easier ways…"

"Please listen to me." Lotor says cutting the Asian off. "At the end of this month I have a shareholders meeting. Mr. Shirogane, I’ve already spent, five years, I’ve spent over 100 million dollars on R&D. If I go into that meeting with nothing to show for it? Then I am dead.”

Shiro says nothing, taking another sip of his drink as Lotor quickly began to flip through the stack of folders inside his briefcase. He then pulls out a thin red folder and held it out for her. “Just look at the people I’ve already hired. Do you recognize any of these names?"

Raising another brow and setting down his drink, the Asian man took the folder flipping through the papers.

Oh yeah, he knew them. He just didn’t know why these criminals would want to work with some CEO of a minor airplane company. Shiro understood that he held lots of power in the stock market but this was a bit minuscule compared to the amount talent.

“Yeah, I’ve chased all of them at one time or another” the Asian mumbled, his eyes scanning information and names. He paused at the next criminal and gave Lotor a look.

"Lance? You have Lance?"

"Is there someone better?” Lotor’s question was not smug but a genuine need for clarification that he had hired the best of the best. This guy was desperate if he was playing with fire like this lot.

"No…. but Lance is insane…”

“Which is why I need you.”

Shiro glanced at the folders again before moving his hand away to close it. The ex-insurance investigator placed it back on bar, leaning back into the stool and crosses his arms over his chest.

“No,” he said sternly, “I’m not a thief.”

“I don’t need thieves, thieves I got. I just need a good honest man,” he held his gaze, “To watch them.”

“There’s no way this is going to work.” The German said, his eyes leaving Lotor’s to glance at the master plan that was thrown across the bar top. “All of them have one thing in common. They all work alone. There is no way that they are going to work for you.”

“For $300,000 each, they will.”

That caught his attention. Shiro leaned forward again, gazing at the man who seemed to be in more of a bind than he was. Lotor leaned forward again, at one point he had rolled up the sleeves of his button up to his elbows. Dark eyes met.

“Look, for running it, I’ll double it for you. I’m desperate here, Mr. Shirogane,” He whined, moaned, did that sad frown with his mouth that made Shiro compassionate heart twitch. NOT “And that’s just the salary, there’s a bonus. Marmoran is insured by I.Y.S, your old bosses.“ Shiro perked up at that.  "It’s a 50 million dollar intellectual property rights policy on these designs.”

His words hung in the air and for a moment Shiro wanted to walk away. But something he couldn’t explain kept him still.

“Now my question for Mr. Shirogane is… how badly do you want to screw the insurance company that let your fiance die?”

.~.


	2. Chapter 2

~Chapter 2~

“Hunk.”

The room of the building Shiro ‘occupied’ at the top floor was empty for the night, the room dark with the exception of his laptop and a couple other devices. The night sky and the skyscraper that stood as tall the money stacks it made glared at them from across the street.

“Got it.” With a quick plug in and switch, the projector took the blueprints of their mark to a whole new level, a 3D movable image of all the inner workings and setup of the building that housed the stolen designs. Shiro placed in his earpiece, the microphone reaching toward his mouth while it hooked around his ear.

“You guys set up?” he  asked, another couple of clicks by the boy genius and the image moved, showing the many levels until it got to the main floor with the computer engineering systems. Instantly, the small red blinking lights indicated the motion detectors and alarms on the floor.

_‘Just one question? Where on earth did you get these?  The 80’s having a garage sale?’_

Shiro rolled his eyes while Hunk snickered.

“Pidge, just put them on. No surprises okay?” The older warned.

The hacker glared at the ear pieces the ex-investigator had given them shaking her head. The young nerd knew that Shiro was not as tech savvy as she’d like to think, seeing that he relied on himself for most of his work, unlike people like Pidge and Lance relied on their equipment. Which meant Pidge was not too proud of what kind of tech they’d be sporting.

“I got something nicer.” Pidge smiled, picking up a clear container. The ginger haired girl turned to Keith, who was standing behind her. He was a bit shorter than she imagined but Pidge knew better than to base everything on looks alone. Something criminals learn right off the bat if they wanted to stay alive, or out of prison.

“It’s a bone conduction earpiece mic. It’ll pick upon the vibrations in your jaw. _You can hear everything."_

The hitter took the small clear ear bud in his ear. He was dressed in black as well, casually with a plain black beanie that kept his long shaggy black hair from view. Keith gave the hacker a look, “So you’re not as useless as you look.”

Pidge glared at him, “I don’t even know what you do.”

The violet eyed man gave her a glare right back, but he knew better than to knock out the only person who was tapped into the alarm systems. Unzipping his vest, shedding it so that he could move easier in his black t-shirt and kneeled to make sure everything in his black bag was where it was supposed to be.

Pidge let out a breath moving back to her own bag to retrieve her laptop, obviously relieved that she didn’t need to confront the man who could probably kill her with one hand behind his back. her bright eyes raised to the tanned man sitting on top of the pulley he had put together, his black converse swinging while he strapped on his harness, his clothes blended him into the night along with the rest of them, from the top of his black beanie to the tips of his toes. The thief flipped easily around the pulley so that he was upside down in front of the hacker, top of his beanie brushing her keyboard.

“Can I have one?” he asked, flashing a white smile. Lance was famous, his hits were squeaky clean and there was almost no paper trail on him unless someone had an up and personal encounter with him. He was about the cash not the con. He didn’t fool around and was never at someone’s hire, until now.

Pidge nodded with a smile, holding out the box for him, before dropping it back into her bag, getting back to her laptop, fingers quickly going to work.

_“You guys done?”_

“Waiting on you Shiro.” Keith said, heading toward the roof entrance.

_“Focus. On my count.”_

Lance gave a pull at his wire, the harness taking most of the weight, elevated on his pulley system to give him an angle. He leaned back to test it, smiling as he ran his leather clad fingers over the clip.

“Last time I used this rig, Paris, 2006.” He said in memory, a small smile played at his lips. Pidge gave him a look before going back to her screen with a smile of her own. Setting the security cameras on loop was the easy part, deactivating the alarm system for the likes of Pidge was easy too. But the brunette would be on his own with the pressure detectors.

 _“Wait you’re talking about the Corbascio? You stole that?”_ Shiro's voice pierced their ear drums.

Keith tapped his ear with a sneer, “Are these things even safe?”

Pidge shrugged at his question and looked up as if in thought, “Yeah it’s completely safe…well…nausea, weakness in your right side, stroke…strokie-ness….”

The hitter glared at the computer geek. “You’re precisely why I work alone.”

 _“Guys listen up, we’re going to go on my count, not a second sooner. Lance, no freelancing.”_ Shiro’s voice interrupted the moment.

Keith pressed a finger to the ear bud, “Hey, relax, we know what we’re doing."

_“On. My. Count. Five….four…”_

"Oh, he doesn’t want to be our pal." Pidge chuckled, setting her part into play.

_“Three... tw-”_

 With quick movements, and a yell of excitement, the black clad thief ran toward the edge of the building, launching himself off the ledge and into the air. The rope on his harness pulled at the wheel it was hooked to, giving him lead as he free fell down the side of the building upside down.

“Lance is gone.” Keith stated fingers pressed the the com

 _“Son of a Bitch.”_  Shiro swore,

Running to the edge both, Keith and Pidge watched the thin figure fall until the measured rope pulled him to a slow stop in front of one of the many windows on the skyscraper  

 “That’s twenty pounds of crazy in a five pound bag.”


	3. Chapter 3

~Chapter 3~

_ “Okay then, everyone into position.” _

Lance placed a delicate hand hand the the edge of the glass paneled window, eyes moving to the small black box in the corner of the room. “Vibration detectors are on.”

“No cutting Lance, use the binary.”

The brunette nodded, removing the sleek black tube from his pocket, the paste burnt a nice sized hole through the glass. With a careful hand Lance climbed halfway through the hole, until he released  the clip from his harness.

The thief found the main frame of the elevators easily, tucking himself into the small closet sized space to hook up Pidge's device to the hard drive. The small handheld screen lit up the moment it synced with the mechanics, all elevator controls were now in his hands.

“Lance, how are you doing?”

“Got it.” The Thief replied, “Cameras are on loop and I have sights on the surveillance room.”

“Good. Keith?”

The hitter was quick to make it back to his post, throwing open the latch to the building’s elevator shaft. “Headed down.” Keith threw the large duffel bag down into metal ladder encased in darkness climbing down, with Pidge close behind. 

Reaching a hand to grab a glow stick from his pocket, the violet eyed man gave it a hard crack against the latter, the darkness was penetrated by an eerie green glow,  just as the elevator under the duo jerked and starting its way down to their destination.

_ "Mullet and smallfry are on their way."  _

The main software lab was on the fourteenth floor and with a twenty three story building, the thief had to get in and control the elevators without letting the guards see them moving. Just another screen on a loop in the security room. Keith waited for the metal box to come to a halt before unlatching the escape hatch to the top of the car. With ease, Keith jumped into the elevator pulling the smaller girl with him just as the doors dinged open.

_ “You have the decoder?”  _ Hunk’s voice came over the com. Pidge nodded knowing the Hawiian man could see her through the security feed, and took the duffel bag from Keith, pulling out what looked like a large calculator attached to a card with a single strip down the side.

“Yeah I got it.” She replied, handing the duffel back to Ebony haired man, they made their way down the hall and to the right, the elevator doors stayed open for their escape.

_ “Good, you know what to do.” _

The door stuck out from the rest of the floor, a bolted steel with no handle surrounded by storage cages with prototype pieces, file boxes and doorways that lead to more secrets that they didn’t bother putting into the system. As soon as he put the fake card into the lock, the machine lit up in her hands. Ten green numbers changed quickly while the device began to crack the password to get in.

“Huh, a Ten-digit password. Not bad.” Pidge remarked with a small smile, obviously intrigued at the security protection

Keith put his back to the nerd, looking out at the way they came. The right turn they made into the hall made it easier to protect but hopefully they would be in and out in a couple of minutes.

_ “You got any chatter on their frequencies??”  _ Shiro's voice said through the coms.

The blue eyed thief gave a confused look. “No. Why?” 

_ “There's eight guards listed on the duty roster, but only four at the guard post.” _

Lance switched the screens until he came across the guard room, “I can't even tell how many guys are in the room. How can you tell who's who?”

_ “Count the haircuts, Lance. Count the haircuts.” _

“I would have missed that...” the brunette whispered slowly, flipping through more of the camera screens.

_ “What was that?”  _

“Got 'em!” The thief cursed under his breath, “They’re doing their rounds an hour early! Why the fu--”

_ “The playoffs.” _ the Asian answered, watching from the large window of the opposite building.“They doing the rounds an hour early so they can watch the playoffs.”

_ “Shit guys, they noticed the elevator stuck on the fourteenth floor. They’re coming your way.”  _ Lance voice was in a panic now.

Pidge shook the device as it cracked another number, only eight more to go.

_ “Lance where are they exactly?” _ Shiro replied calmly

“South east stairwell.” Lance informed over the com.

_ “Alright.” _ The older of the five announced over the coms,  _ “Here's what we got to do, Keith I want you to clear the zone, use Pidge as bait.” _ Shiro instructed, his voice not even hesitating despite his rather traitorous words.

“Bait?” Pidge hissed, looking over at Keith. The guy was already taking off his jacket, heading around the corner leaving the ginger all by her lonesome, “Alright I am no one’s bait.”

_ “They’re close, Pidge.”  _ Hunk warned.

“Just, come on.” She cursed, slapping her hand against the side of it again. Six more numbers to go. This was supposed to be an in and out job. Her green eyes watched the numbers spin, waiting for them to stop so that the damn door would open.

She could hear the footsteps down the hall, the echoing voices as the men tried to get through to the other guards with their coms. Luckily she knew that Hunk had already taken care of that.

“I can’t, I’m done.” Pidge sighed, letting go of the device so that it hung off the lock pad. She grabbed the duffel off the floor, grabbing Keith’s jacket and took a couple steps toward the way they came.

“Freeze!”

The hacker looked up just as four security guards set up in formation in front of her, blocking the only exit down the hall. Four clicks echoed around him, each gun barrel pointed at him and ready to fire with any sudden move. She pursed her lips, folding her hands behind her head, letting the bag drop to the ground. She flashed her best worried, innocent face at them.

“Look, I’m just checking that everything--”

Pidge caught her words, pausing her charade just as Keith came from around the corner behind the four guards. There was a flash of what looked like amusement in the man’s eyes before any of them noticed he was even there. Like flipping a switch, the situation changed. Keith grabbed one of the guy’s hands that held his gun, before planting a well-placed punch into his solar plexus. As the man asked for air, he squeezed the trigger and fired but Keith still had his hand on his wrist so it was all too easy to jerk the gun in the direction of the ceiling.

It was like a well-staged choreography. Keith made quick work of each guard, mostly disarming them or using shitty aim against the other. In under two minutes, each guard was unconscious and lying on the floor. Pidge was actually a little surprised that the man hadn't killed anyone. 

The hitter smirked and looked at the nerd.

“That’s what I do.” Keith said smirking proudly.

A sharp beep turned both men back to the matter at hand, the compression steel door popped open as the device finished cracking the ID code. They didn’t say a word to each other, just a look before they both headed for the door. The inside of it was filled with towering hard drives the size of filing cabinets, each lit up and connecting to a single monitor. Stock market dependent companies tended to hide their most precious things in such room. 


	4. Chapter 4

_ "Guys, I need you to talk to me.”  _ Shiro’s voice rang through their coms.

“We’re in,” Pidge replied, plucking the flash drive from her pocket and placing it into the side of the monitor. “I'm stripping the drives now.” A window opened, filled with scrolling code as it took everything from the hard drives including the stolen designs. Keith took it upon himself to drag the crumpled unconscious bodies of the guards into the cramped room, laying them side by side. Of course not before he duct taped their wrists and mouths. Pidge watched the monitor until the window disappeared and in its place was another separate window with the words ‘No Files’ flashed at her.

She took out the flash drive with the information and pocketed it in a different pocket before taking a smaller drive and placing it into the monitor. A window popped up before the screen began to flicker out. Each hard drive around them began to flicker before shutting down, leaving the once glowing room in darkness.

“Did you give'em a virus?” The Ebony male asked looking at his own handy work with the guard.

“More than one virus, My friend.” The nerd replied. 

_ “Problem,” _ Lance interrupted over the com, _ “Those guards you ganked? They reset all the alarms on the roof and all the floors above us. We can't go up.” _

Keith exited the room and grabbed the duffel bag, throwing the duct tape back inside.

“Every man for himself.” He said swiftly, heading back down the hall.

“That's fine, I’m the one with the merchandise.” Pidge rolled her eyes, tossing the brute a glare.

_ “Yeah well I’m the one with a fucking exit.” _ Lance argued.

_ “And I'm the one with the plan.” _ Shiro stated, his voice clear and direct.  _ “Now I know you children don't play well with others, but I need you to hold it together for exactly seven more minutes. So, get to the elevator and head down. We're going to the burn scam.” _

They all moved without question, each knowing their jobs. Despite never working in a team, Shiro noticed that they took order when under pressure. They headed back to the elevator quickly, getting in and pressing the button for the first floor. Keith dropped the duffel bag and began to pull out their new clothes.

“Going to plan ‘b’?”  Keith questioned sliding on a pair of fake glasses and gelling his hair back.

_ “Technically this would be plan ‘g’.” _ The Asian replied, they could hear him closing up cases and Hunk shuffling around. 

By the time they got to Lance’s floor, both were already more than halfway dressed, old clothes were underneath but hidden with a look of professionalism. Lance stepped onto the elevator and began to strip as well, pulling on his own disguise of proper office wear.

“How many plans do we have? Is there a plan ‘m’?” Lance asked as Keith pulled out a blue Velcro leg brace from his duffel, kneeling to slide it around Pidge's bare calf. He grumbled as he had to press his face into the side of her knee length skirt to keep her steady.

_ “Pidge dies in plan ‘m’.” _ Shiro commented, a car starting in the background.

“I like plan ‘m’.” Keith stated. Pidge looked annoyed rolling her eyes  as Lance placed the latex burn onto her cheek, the other male holding out the liquid adhesive for him.

“Hold still.” Keith hissed as Pidge jerked to pulled on a smooth blond wig, the light tresses falling around her shoulders. It was a sharp contrast to the light grey of her suit jacket.

“I’m trying.”

With the last ‘ding’ of the elevator, the doors opened like a curtain. Both men slapped on concerned faces as Pidge hobbled out of the elevator on her fold out cane with a look of pain. The duffel bag was carried over Keith’s  shoulder with a sticker that said ‘MEDICAL’ on the side while Lance held her purse with one hand on her arm to ‘steady’ the burn survivor.

The lobby security gaped, covering the gun he readied at his waist. Keith glared him.

“What cha starin’ for? What’s wrong with you?” he hollered angrily as Lance ushered Pidge to the door.

“S-Sorry, I didn’t mean--” the baby faced guard blushed in embarrassment.

“its okay, Bob...” The blond woman sniffed, “I’m used to it.”

“Get the door.” Keith ordered indignantly.

The security guard held open the door for the three of them, the men allowing the victim to walk through first before rushing to her aid. As soon as they heard the door click clothes behind them, a silver Lexus pulled up to the curb. Lance glanced behind them and watched as the security turned his back to the door to take a tongue lashing from another concerned officer.

“Go, go, go...” Pidge hissed throwing her cane to Keith who took the front seat as Pidge ran around the car. Within seconds the thieves were in and out without a trace left behind.

~.~

“What’s taking so long?” Keith growled.

“Hold on, I’m going.” Pidge snapped back.

All four of them stood around the middle of the park, the tree around them couldn’t shade the way the sky began to light up as the sun rose in the early morning. Pidge typed away as Shiro tucked his hands into the pockets of his coat.

“Annnddd….the designs are sent.” Pidge said with a grin, Hunk gave her a high five as she closed her laptop.

“Good, the money will be in your accounts later today.” Shiro said, turning his back to the group.

“Anybody noticed how awesome we were last night?” Lance said, looking between them all as they turned their backs as well.

“One show only, no encores.” Keith rolled his eyes, passing a glare at them all.

“I already forgot your names,” Pidge replied head down casted, tucking the laptop into her bag.

Keith grabbed Shiro by the shoulder stopping him from walking away, “How was it, Shirogane? Being on the same side?” He smirked, dark eyes twinkled with amusement.

The ex-investigator glared at him, pulling shoulder out of his grip “We are not on the same side, I am not a thief.”

“You are now,” Hunk commented with a chuckle.

“Come on, Shiro, tell the truth, didn’t you have at least a little bit of fun playing the Black King, instead of the White Knight, just this once?” Lance teased.

There was only a laugh before they all went their separate ways.

They worked alone.


	5. Chapter 5

Shiro groaned, the obnoxious beeping from the bed stand made his head pound. He didn’t open his eyes, his hand flung out from under the covers, fingers feeling around the short desk. The Asian slapped the hotel alarm when he realized the beeping was actually ringing. Pale fingers searched for her cell phone, refusing to pop his head out from under the cotton sheets. 

His fingers fell on the device, pulling it under the blankets and sliding the arrow on the screen with one motion.

“Hello?” He practically groaned out. His voice was scratchy, head throbbing. His pillow smelled of brandy and that fake clean hotel scent that clung to everything in his room.

“You screwed me!”

Shiro winced, pulling the phone away from his ear. He pushed himself up out of the covers so that he was resting his back against the headboard.

“What are you talking about?” He hissed, closing his eyes to the sunlight that streamed in from behind the white hotel curtains.

“The designs never got to me!” Lotor’s harsh and panicked voice yelled through the receiver. 

“That’s impossible, I watching it be sent.” he replied thinking back to the night before. He watched Pidge download the information on his flash drive to the laptop, watched him email the designs to Lotor's personal address. It happened and there was no way that Pidge would’ve went through all that trouble to just steal information that was already stolen prior. It didn’t make sense when their payday was a click away.

“I don’t know what you saw, Ms. Shirogane, but I received nothing!”

“I told you that you couldn’t trust them.” He sighed.

“It's not my job to trust anybody, that's what you were here for! I am freezing the payments! Do you hear me, Shirogane?”

Shiro pushed the covers off himself, stepping onto the carpet and headed for the bathroom. He needed that money, regardless of how he got it. He pushed open the door of the bathroom and headed straight to the shower.

“Mr. Lotor, I need you to calm down. We can talk this through. I’ll come over to your office and--”

“No, no, you cannot come here! Do not come here! My company has an old air base just outside the city that is out of use. I’ll text you the address and you better be there in an hour!”

The angry CEO didn’t give him a chance to confirm as the line went dead. Shiro put the phone onto the counter, looking away from the sink and into the mirror as the shower ran. Tired eyes looked back at him, his face was pale from lack of sleep, hair laying flat on one side, and he was still in his clothes from the night before.

...

After a good shower and change of clothes Shiro made his way to the airbase boots, clicked slightly echoing in the empty air base. The sunlight barely streamed in from the high broken out windows, large crates and old parts made the place into more of an abandoned warehouse maze.

The ex-investigator paused at the sound of other voices echoing in the room, familiar voices that made his brow furrow.

“Where’s my money?”

“You better not be pointing that gun at me, Shorty.”

“You took it--”

“How could I have taken it? You and the big guy over there, were the last ones with the drive.”

Shiro stepped around the corner, his cohorts stood looking at each other with tensions high. Hunk was standing next to Pidge, while the shortest of the three had a gun pointed at Keith, who looked more pissed off and annoyed than afraid. 

“Hey!” he called out, walking toward them. Pidge turned and pointed the gun at him. All pairs of eyes looked him up and down as if trying to figure out if he could’ve hidden the money somewhere on his body. 

“Did you do it?” Keith questioned face losing some of the annoyance. “You are the one who has played on both sides.” 

Pidge turned the gun back to the hitter who rolled his eyes and shoved his hands into his leather jacket. 

The Asian looked him over and raised an eyebrow at him as he crossed his arms. “You look pretty calm for a guy who has a gun pointed at him.”

“The safety is on,” he said glancing at the gun. Pidge’s brow furrowed and so did Hunk’s.

“Like I’m falling for that!” the thief said, squaring her shoulders and meeting Keith’s eyes.

“No, actually he’s right,” Shiro chimed in, “The safety is on.”

Pidge blinked and pointed the gun down to look at the side of it. With a quick reflex, Keith took the automatic from her hand easily, disarming it and separating the clip.

“Damn it! Shiro!” Pidge swore, while Hunk gave a little chuckle at how she’d been fooled.

“You armed?” Shiro asked also turning to the hitter. 

The Ebony male rolled his eyes and opened his jacket to show that he had nothing. 

“I don’t like guns” He replied 

A click had them all turning to see a very armed Lance walking towards them gun held securely in his hands. “My money isn't on my account. That makes me cry inside, in my special angry place.”

At the sight of him, something in Shiro’s gut felt off. It was like the tips of his fingers tingled and something was playing at the back of his head that he couldn’t quite pinpoint. 

“So you guys came here to get paid right?” he asked. Hunk and Pidge gave her a look of annoyance.

“Transfer of funds,” Hunk said.

“Global economy,” Pidge finished.

“It supposed to be a walk away, I'm never supposed to see you again.” Keith growled, running his hand through his hair though all it did was fall back to where it was before.

Something seemed to click inside Shiro’s head. “So you’re all here because you didn’t get paid,” he said slowly, looking at each one of their faces. The Asian cracked a smile, “And you’re all angry.”

“Why is he laughing?” Hunk whispered to Keith. The violet eyed man ignored him, watching the ex-investigator like a hawk. He might not have always liked the other man but he was good at his job and if he’s laughing in situation costing them $300, 000 than he knew that something was up.

Shiro laughed a little more before he spoke again, “I mean, the only way to get us all in the same place, at the same time…”

His smile fell and his eyes met the other three as things began to click into place.

“…is to tell us we’re not getting paid,” 

There was a silence between them as they each began to understand the gravity of the situation. This was no longer a walk away job, no longer a payment for the dirty work. This was now tying up loose ends. There was a split second, a quiet ‘tick’ echoed in the emptiness of the airbase.

A fire was lit under their heels in seconds, all four of them ran back the way they came, dodging crates and boxes as they went. None stopped to look behind them, 

All of them could see the stream of light that shone from under the small garage door. Shiro ran for the control panel first, pressing down on the OPEN button as they all ran toward their salvation. Pidge was the smallest so she slid through the small opening easily, Lance was next his thin nimble body slipping through, followed by Hunk and then Keith.

Shiro’s heart beat in his ears, when heard another quicker ‘tick’ and couldn’t help but look behind him as he moved under the door. Bright yellow flames, a rush of heat filled his bones with panic. An explosion threw their bodies to the hard concrete with force, debris flew in all directions.

Then everything went black.


	6. Chapter 6

The Ex investigator gasped as he woke, Keith looked at him, watching as Shiro shot upright and realized that his wrist was a bit restricted in movement just like the rest of them, ash and dirt on his clothes, his dark hair smudge with grime

“You don’t like hospitals very much, do you?” the black haired man commented, watching the Asian try to get his wits about his while figuring out where he was. The handcuff clanked against the metal railing of his hospital bed as he moved to sit on the edge of the bed like himself.

“Not particularly.” He winced, rolling his shoulders.

“Finally! You’re awake.” A man’s voice rang through the room. Shiro looked around confused before his eyes landed on the small vent near the ceiling, “Cops and firemen got there just as we were waking up.”

“Lance?” He asked.

“Adjoining rooms.” Keith filled in, he had situated himself comfortably, feet placed firmly on the ground as he watched the other man carefully.

“Where are we?” Shiro asked, trying to look around the white walled hospital room. He had seen the inside of hospitals longer than he ever wanted to for the rest of his life. He knew what he was looking at but the problem wasn’t the inside but what was waiting for them outside. God, he was already thinking like a criminal.

“A county hospital, local cops were the first to respond to the explosion.” Hunk's voice came through the vent as well, obviously they were a bit low on holding cells so they could only spare unused ER rooms

“Have we been processed?” Shiro asked, looking at Keith. The raven man then lifted his hand and showed off the black ink on each finger pad. Shiro groaned.

“They’ve been faxed to the state police.” Lance said, running a hand through his unruly locks.

“If the state’s run us, were screwed,” Pidge said, his voice was a mix of panic and annoyance echoing through the vent.

“How long?” Keith asked.

“Thirty to thirty-five minutes depending on the software,” Hunk replied.

Shiro glared at the stark white sheets, his brain working as fast as it could. He had never been on the other side of processing. He had brought guys like them, thieves looking to dupe their insurance company, to justice. He watched them get processed. He had never been processed and when all the information came through, it was his who would have a perfect record not them. All because of Lotor.    

“They printed us twenty minutes ago.” Keith sighed, leaning his head back against the wall.

“So unless we get out of here in the next ten minutes, we’re all going to jail,” Lance growled,  spinning the useless cuffs around his finger, pacing the room.It was bad enough that he was caught to begin with but now he was placed in a room with the two people who were useless within this ragtag team. Well, useless without a keyboard and monitor. The thief looked over the other two in the room with him. The small ginger haired girl was cuffed to the bed with a rather bored expression on her face, while the other bigger man was cuffed to a chair in the corner, though the way he moved about made it look like he had to pee or something.

“I can take these cops,” Keith said, with a small shrug. He was never one for killing people unless absolutely necessary.

“Don’t you dare. If you kill anyone, you’ll ruin my get away,” Lance bit back.

“Lance! Get me a phone. What we’re going to do is, we’re going to get out of here together,” Shiro said sternly, rattling the cuff against his wrist.

“This was supposed to be a one time deal.” The hitter pointed out, distrust was still on coating his face.

“Look guys here’s your problem, you all know what you can do. I know what ALL of you guys can do, so that gives me the edge, gives me the plan. Working together is the only way to get out of here,” Shiro set his jaw, his words were clear and without waiver. He was not going to let them rot in jail for believing that they were actually helping someone.

A silence took over the two rooms.

“I don’t trust them,” Lance confessed.

Shiro looked up at the air vent. “Do you trust me?” he called back to the blue eyed man.

More silence spoke volumes of the thoughts that ran through their heads. They were thieves, they weren’t supposed to trust anyone. Trusting meant they opened themselves up for failure and none of them could afford that in the field.

“Of course, you’re one of the good guys,” he said a tone of truth to his voice.

“Then you need to get me a phone, now.”


	7. Chapter 7

Lance stopped his pacing, and looked to the others, 

“This is going to suck,” he mumbled before he took the cuff and placed it back on his wrist and to the bedrail again, and jammed two fingers down his throat.

“Ah man.”

“Gross.”

It took only a call for the nurse and five minutes of bustling as janitors cleaned the vomit before the doctor, a nurse and several armed county officers were inside the room. Lance laid back in the bed, putting on his best ‘sick’ face as the doctor waited for the thermometer to beep between his lips. Officers stood by the boys, the nurse and doctor had their back to the room as they kept an eye on him.

Mistake one: never turn your back on a thief.

The doctor clicked his tongue as he took the thermometer from his lips, looking at the perfect temperature flashing back at him.

“Well, vomiting could be a result of concussion. We’ll keep you on fluids and keep an eye on you.” The doctor smiled, trying to forget that there were armed officers in the room of criminals. He turned his back to the tanned male as he gave the nurse the thermometer to get rid of the sanitary film for him. With a smile, he exited the room with everyone else following him out.

With the click of the door, Lance sat up with a smirk. An iPhone between his fingers. Pidge smiled back from her bed, holding up a flip phone. With a quick look to each other they tossed the correct phones to one another.

“You got them?” Shiro’s voice echoed from the vent.

“Yeah,” Lance called back, quickly picking the lock on his handcuffs 

“Good, Pidge, Hunk, I need one of you to do your thing. Give them a reason to let us out, I need FBI.” Shiro instructed, “Lance pass me a phone I can use.”

“Got it.”

Shiro held out his free hand as Lance stood on the bed and shoved the flip phone through the vent slats until it free fell down into his palm. Keith watched the way Shiro’s lips moved upwards,  as he looked through the older phone.

“They're expecting a phone call right?” The Asian stated looking at the Ebony and tossing him the phone.

He caught it and looked down at the screen. With a smirk he pressed SEND and brought the phone to his ear. It only took a couple of rings before it was answered. The nurse quickly handed the phone to the nearest officer outside their door.

“Deputy Burns.”

“Yes, this is detective lieutenant Stilton of the New York State Police, we got those prints you sent us. They’re sending up all kinds of red flags. I have someone on the line for you from the FBI up there in Washington, can you hold, son?” he put on his Midwest accent as he spoke.

Despite what most people would think to overstated or cliché, most marks like to believe clichés. It made their mundane life interesting, especially cops.

“Uh, yes of course.”

Keith looked back over to Shiro before throwing him the phone. The man caught it and placed it up to his ear, his face had a serious look as he waited a moment before speaking.

“Deputy Burns, this is deputy director Johnson from the FBI, is our man alright?”

“Sorry, sir, I don’t follow--”

“Deputy, listen to me, the man you have in there is one of ours actually. He’s been deep undercover for three years now.”

“Seriously?”

Shiro rolled his eyes, “Yes, that’s correct. You should be receiving a fax any moment now confirming what I’m telling you.”

There was a faint rustling on the line and the sound of a high five in the other room making Shiro smile like the cat that caught the canary.

“Most of what I have told you is classified,” Shiro said, his voice patriotically laced with sternness, “I need to know that I can trust you. Can I?”

“Yes, sir.” Shiro could hear the pride in the deputy’s voice and he gave a nod to blonde.

It took no time at all for them to be outside the hospital, loading up a borrowed county police SUV. The cops stood to the side just outside the hospital doors as Hunk led each ‘apprehended criminal’ into the car. It was a tight fit but the county cops were eager to give the young FBI agent a helping hand getting them all inside the caged back.

Hunk led Keith to the right side of the car, hand on his head as he guided the other man into the vehicle. The hitter’s head slammed into the edge of the doorway, making the man growl. His glare was furious yet he kept his mouth shut for the sake of the job.

“Sorry...” The larger man whispered putting him into the car and closing the door. The Hawaiian them turned to the officers and gave them a sloppy salute that they returned with vigor.

“You, men truly are the backbone of this country.” Hunk smiled giving each a nod before opening the door of the driver’s side.

The sliding doors of the hospital opened as a dark haired nurse walked out towards the proud officers.

“Sir, the state police are on the phone,” she said.

The deputy and his partner had no time to react as the county SUV pulled out of the parking lot.


	8. Chapter 8

 Reaching their destination the five began to spread out around the rather spacious loft, everything was expensive from the hardwood floors to the flat screen TV’s and sound system setup. It was on the tenth floor so the windows were large and overlooked the city, letting in the light of the setting sun.

“Five first class tickets to anywhere but here, coming right up.” Pidge said, splitting from Hunk and pulled out her laptop from the glass coffee table.  

“Whose place is this?” Lance asked, running his hand over the Italian leather couch.

“Ours.” Both Hunk and Pidge laughed happily before giving a quick high five before the larger man headed straight for the long desk decorated with three flat screen monitors connected to a sleek black keyboard

Shiro leaned against the couch, crossing his arms over his dirt splattered black shirt. They were all filthy but they couldn’t go back to their homes, not with the cops out for them.

“I’m going to beat Lotor so bad even the people who look like him are going to bleed.” Keith rubbed his fists in anger. 

“Good luck with that. He knows our faces, you won’t be able to get within a hundred yards of him.” Lance countered sitting down on the edge of the pool table set up by one of the windows.

“He tried to kill us.” He countered with a glare.

“More importantly, he didn’t pay us,” Lance mumbled. Keith, Hunk, and Pidge looked at him with the same confused face while Shiro ran a hand down his face in exasperation.

“How is that more important?” Keith scowled.

“I take that personally.” Lance shrugged removing his overcoat and throwing it on the couch.

“There’s something wrong with you.”

“Hey guys,” Hunk called, Shiro was stationed over his shoulder at the sites he had pulled up on the monitors, “Look, it seems Lotor was at least halfway honest. He is the head of aerospace company and is a big rival of Marmoran. But check out what my web crawler caught.”

The middle monitor pulled up a news video, a dark haired man wearing shades and a suit was in the forefront of media.

_ “We’ve lost research that we’ve been working on for over five years. Our servers have been sabotaged. Now we’re going to pursue these perpetrators to the full extent of the law and with all the resources we have at our disposal… _ ”

Keith walked up on the other side of Hunk and shrugged, “Could be a cover story.”

The larger man shook his head and pulled up a series of code on the third monitor, scrolling through the window of numbers, “The copy code is time stamped, 2009…2010…way down into the code. There’s no reason to fake those.”

The hacker glanced up at Pidge before shifting his gaze to Shiro who had been silent since they had walked in. The blond noticed the stiffness of the Asian’s shoulders, the way his head tilted down in thought and his forehead held lines in them. Hunk felt the same, looking to the man who knew more about the law than the rest of them only because he was obviously on the wrong side of the tracks.

“So we didn’t steal back the designs?” Keith said, annoyance written all over his raised upper lip.

“No, we just stole them,” Lance replied with a huff, feet swung off the floor.

“Why would Lotor lie to us?” Pidge asked.

Shiro sighed, “Because you’re thieves.”

All eyes were on him again.

“If he hired you for a straight up crime, you’d know he was a bad guy like you. You’d be on to him. This way you just saw him as another citizen in over his head and that’s why you didn’t see the double cross coming,” Shiro explained, he moved to the left, leaning into dark haired boy’s space, to take a better look at the article Pidge had pulled up.

“Then how come you didn’t see it coming?” Lance asked with a sneer.

Shiro glanced back at her, “Like I said before, I’m not a thief.”

Keith frowned crossing his arms across his chest, “Maybe that’s the problem, maybe you--”

“Hey, cool it guys,” Pidge said leaping over the couch and toward the active printer. Sh grabbed the papers she had sent from her laptop and began to hand them out, “Tickets to London, Paris, Rome, and Sydney. All fake identities, all crossed with social securities and--”

“You’re running,” Shiro said, his eyes on the article still, his hands braced on the desk.

All of them looked up from their tickets to him, Pidge still holding his out to the air.

“Yeah you have a better idea, smart man?” Keith countered.

“No, no. You’re running,” he mumbled, eyes scanning the screen clicking on the market article ‘Ark Aerospace showing gains this quarter’. “Now that was a high-risk play. You got your balls tied to the stock price like a cinder block. A shareholder meeting coming up.”

Hunk who was still seated at the computer, moved closer to reading the article as well, before typing a few things on one of the other screens. 

“We can’t let this guy have any time to cool down,” Shiro said.

“You want to run a game on this guy?” Keith asked, his disbelief obvious in his eyes, “You?”

Shiro turned away from the monitors, meeting the man’s hard stare,

“Yeah. I mean, how do you think I got most of my stolen merchandise back? I mean, this guy is  greedy, he thinks he’s smart. He’s the best kind of mark.” Shiro placed his hands on his hips, staring the ex-marine down without a hint of doubt in herself.

“He does think he got rid of us.” Pidge grinned looking at the others.

“Element of surprise,” Lance smirked from his chair.

“What’s in it for me?” Keith asked, looking Shiro up and down. He let a smile play at the corner of his lips, a challenge in those dark depths that held his gaze. He remembered this Shiro Shirogane in Budapest, the Shiro he had learned not to underestimate years ago.

“Pay back and if it goes right, a lot of money,” He said.

“What about me?” Lance chimed in. The ex-insurance investigator turned to him and shrugged,

“A lot of money and if it goes right, pay back,” He replied. He saw the smirk on his face and knew that he had him.

“Hunk? Pidge?” he asked. They looked at each other before turning back to him.

“I was just going to send thousands of porno magazines to his office,” the chestnut haired girl grinned. “But yeah, I’m in”

Hunk also gave a grin, “Me too.”

Keith placed his hand on the older man’s shoulder, “What’s in it for you?”

Shiro looked into his indigo eyes, letting the memories flood the walls he had put up in the last couple of weeks.

_ “Adam!” Fists slammed against the locked glass doors of the ICU, “Adam!” _

_ “We’re losing him!” _

_ “Heart rate is dropping!” _

_ “Adam!” _

Keith watched Shiro close his eyes after they had glazed over for a moment. He righted himself, shaking the hitter’s hand from his shoulder.

“He used my Fiance,” He said softly.

Everyone looked from one to the other, unsure on what was going on or what they were missing. Shiro looked at them and took a deep breath before fixing his blazer and walking towards the door, Hunk, Pidge and Lance falling into step behind him.

“Anyway, let’s go get Allura!” 

For a moment Keith stayed where he was, watching them in confusion. 

"What the fuck is an Allura?”

 


End file.
